Treatment of clay



Patented July 29, 1930 warren STATES grarenr orrlcs 1 winner: 1:. Akron, or new Yonx, N. 2., assmrron re n. 'r. vmnnnrn'r comm;

mconrom'rnn, or new term, N.-

Y-, A. CORPORATION 01' NEW YORK rnmrimnr or my 110 Drawing. Application filed July 24,

' 10 small quartz articles together with flakes of mica, both 0 which'have to be removed be-' fore the clay can be used in the manufacture of paper, etc., because, no matter how finely the grit may be ground by machinery, into the body of the clay, the quartz always remains as a microscopic grit toweaken the fabric, and the mica-shows in the finished product as a shining speck or is liable to I drop out of the paper or a' film, leaving tiny holes. I a Y I have found that when large lumps of air dried clay are broken down without actual ginding, their tendency is to break up into finely divided clay and into little pellets about the size ofthehead of a pin, each of which has a grain of grit for its heart. The grit particles themselves are small, for'example,80%.of the gritin one case passing through a 60 mesh screen. Apparently the clay immediately adjacent the grit particles is more resistant to crushing.

, The method commonly employed heretofore for treating clay to separate grit from it has been that ofagitating the clay in the presence of enough water to soften it to a point where it will disintegrate, using usually around nine times .as much water as clay. After the clay has been softened so as to set .free the particles of grit to whichthey have been adhering, the thin slurry of clay is passed through a series of troughs with cleats across the bottom or pockets called rifiles in which the particles of grit are caught, due to their greater specific gravity, while the clay itself goes over the rifiles andis collasted in vats or tanks and allowed to settle.

F (The water isthen si h n mins layer of clay mud requires several days or even weeks to sufliciently evaporate for Qhandli'ng a a ry house w 'gi mam:-

1938'. Serial 1 .19am. 1

dried and then packaged for delivery to the 3 consumer. While this wet method of washing clay to free it from grit is adequate, it is wasteful and expensive, and requires the drymg out of alarge amount of'water with artificial heat.

According to the present invention, the clay with its fine 't particles in it is treated in a dry way wit out the. necessity of using a lar e amount of water, and of removing the add!: 'water from the clay.

According to the present process, the large lumps of clay mined from the clay bed are first sub'ected to atmospheric drying or' air drying y allowing them to stand several days m a dry shed. They are then broken down into fine clay and pellets by passage through some form of disintegrator, taking care not to exert an abrading or grinding action which will reduce the grit-carrying pellets to a size finer than the head of apin,

nor to splinter or reduce the size of the grits themselves. A c type of disintegrator'can be employed,'w ith regulation of the disintegrating operation.

age mill or hammer mill Ordinary rough crushing rolls can also be.

employed since it is not necessary in the present process that all of the clay except that immediately adjacent the grit particles beseparated therefrom.

grated mixture of free clay and grit carrying pellets is passed .though a dryer-such as a- The preliminarily air dried and disintefree moisture, since the clay itself which contains water of hydration is not chemically dehydrated. As a result of the drying operation there is obtained a dry mixture made up of fine clav particles and of grit-carryin pellets and consisting, for example, of aroun 50% fine free'cl'ay and 50% more or less ofgrit-carrying pellets, although the amount of free clay may According to the present invention the preliminarily disintegrated and dried clay is fsubiectcd'to a"eembined air separation and {attrition process by means ofwhich the. fin v be considerably in excess of this horizontal passed therethrough a current of'air orgas.

clay is separated, and the clay contained in Y the 't-carrying pellets is gradually separated t herefrom and removed by air separation leaving a gritty residue behind containin substantially all of the grit admixed wlth a fimited amount of unseparated' clay.

The combined air separation and attrition process of the present invention can be carried out in different types of apparatus. One

suitable type is a horizontal rotating cylinder made of material which will not blacken or corrode the clay and into which the clay .is fed at one end and the gritty residue dischar d from the other. The cylinders may ll be c seamless metal, iron, or wood, and suitabl lined.

' 'lbithin this rotating cylinder I provide 4 some form of media which will have a mild and re lated attrition or grinding action upon th: grit bearing pellets to gradually so arate the adhering clay therefrom without grinding u the grit particles themselves to a fine pow er. The cylinders may thus be filled-or partly filled with'small solid rubber 5 balls which, as the cylinder revolves and as the balls tumble and roll over each other will exert a-rubbingaction on the grit-carrying clay llets and rub'oif and set free the adhering c ay from the little particles of grit, withoutfracturing or reducing the grits themselves to a fine wder, but rather freeing them intact or an antially so.

During the assage of theclay through rotating cylinder there is which will serve to sweep out of the cyl- I 'inder the fine particles of cla The tumbling otthe clay will throw the e particles into f. I. suspension in the air and the air current passing through the c linder will carry these fine particles wit it. Thereis thus obtain gd anair separation ofthe fin'e clay particles which are progressively removed from the clay as it passes through the rotating cylinder.

' The current of air passing through the cylinder enters at the discharge end and the clayladen'air escapes at thefeed end of the cylbo inder. The grinding or rubbing action upon the pellets maybe ocalized in that part of the cylinder near th'e'discharge end so that, as the 'prelimin'arily rough crushed and dried mixturevof-fine claya nd grit-bearing pellets enter the feed en'd'o fthe'c linder, the .cur-

rent 'of air passing tliroug will remove a large part 01 the fineclay particles before the 't-bearingpellets'are subjected to the rubngtndxdisintegrating treatment in the cylqg'inderqi'ks the'ipelletszare then subjected to disintegration and the clay rubbed oif from them, it tends to escape with the, current of airso that the-"- clay is" progressively lfreed l fi'fli id l;i .r s v. iv.f em

'1 from the cylit'idei, leaving and unr the ole is thus directly obtained in a form 1- T lets is heavier than the clay, and by regu at- -ing the current of air passing through the ready or packaging.

The grit contained in the grit-bearing cylinder, the clay can be picked up by the air without 'icking up the heavier grit particles, thereby effecting a selective separation of the fine clay from the grit.

The mixture of grit and unseparated clay discharged from the cylinder-may be subjected to further treatment to separate additional admixed clay from the grit, if the separation is not sufliciently complete in the rotating cylinder.

It will thus be .seen that in thepresent process the clay is subjected to a preliminary rough crushing or disintegration and to drying to give a mixture of fine clay and gritbearing pellets and that the clay is subsequently subjected to a combined air separation and disintegration of a character which will separate the fine clay particles from the grit and recover them directly in a marketable form. The clay subjected to this combined air separation and rubbing or grinding treatment may be that which has'merely been combined crushing and air separating treat- *ment.

The combined air separation and attrition treatment of the present invention can be carried out in one or more stages and in one or more series of operations with progressive separation of the 'fine clay and progressive breaking up of the grit-bearing l ets and the freeing of the fine clay from t e grit.

1. The method of treating clay which comprises subjecting claycom isin it of substantially imperceptible lin ggr eness to, a prehminary 'drymg and rough disintegration, and sub ecting'the resulting clay to a combined air separation and detrition to further separate the clay from grit-bearing pellets without breaking down the grit particles and to recover the fine clay particles substantially freeof such fine grit. I

2. The method of separating substantially grit-free impalpable clay from dried clay products containing pellets, which comprises subJectmg clay compr sing grit of substam tially imperceptible fineness and containin such pellets to a combined disintegrating an air separating treatment whereby the clay freed from such grit particles is removed by the air separating treatment.

3. The method of treating clay which comprises air drying clay comprising grit of substantially imperceptible fineness, disintegrating 1t to produce a clay product contain mg pellets comprising such fine grit articles, drying the disintegrated clay an subectin the. dried clay to a treatment which inclu es a combined air separation and detrition treatment to recover the fine clay particlessubstantially free of such fine grit.

' 4. The method of treating clay wh ch comprises subjecting air dried clay comprising grit of substantially imperceptible fineness to a rough disintegration to form a product containing pellets and fine clay comprising such fine grit particles, drying the disintegrated clay, subjecting the disintegrated clay to a preliminary air separation to remove fine clay particles therefrom, and subjecting the remaining clay with such grit-bearing pellets to a combined disintegrating and air separation treatment to remove additional clay substantially free of such fine grit.

5. The method of producing a substantially 7 3o grit free impalpable powder from clay which comprises air drying clay comprising grit of substantially imperceptible fineness in lumps as taken fromthe mine, rough crushing the air dried lumps so as to leave a substantial part of the clay in the form of pellets and sub'ecting-the rough crushed material to a isintegrating treatment in the presence of a draft of air of velocity suflicient to carry off in suspension separated paro ticles of clay but insufiicient to carry ofi the grit particles or unseparated aggregates of clav whereby the clay is recovered substantially free of such fine grit.

6. The method of treating clay to produce a substantially grit-free impalpable powder which comprises separating clay comprising grit of substantially imperceptible, fineness into relatively small lumps, subjecting such lumps to a disintegrating treatment in a cur rent of air, the velocity of which is regulated so that the particles of clay of the fineness desired will be carried off therein but the particles of fine grit, aggregates of clay particles, and clay particles of too large size will i not be entrained therein whereby the fine clay particles substantially free of such fine grit is recovered. y

In testimony whereof I aflixmy signature. WILLIAM H. ALTON. 

